


Forest Secrets

by DoNotFreeEdgar



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Actual Bird!Gavin, But mom I love him!!!, M/M, Ray Riding Hood, cliches, wolf!ryan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 04:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6839236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoNotFreeEdgar/pseuds/DoNotFreeEdgar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray has been acting weird lately and Jack decides to follow him into the woods to see where he goes..</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forest Secrets

Jack has been following Ray through the forest for about 10 minutes now. It had been a spur of the moment decision when he saw Ray making his way towards the edge of the woods, and honestly, he’s starting to regret it. Nevertheless, he knows that Ray is hiding something from him, has been for a while. Taking long walks in the forest, coming home late without an explanation, that sorta thing. He’d tried talking to him about it, but so far it hadn’t worked, and at this point he figured it might be time to take up some more extreme measures, even if he wasn’t quite happy about it.

Through the trees, he sees Ray stop suddenly and turn to the left of the path.

“I know you're there, just come out already” he calls out, and Jack freezes. How the hell did he notice him, he’d been so careful.

Suddenly, halting Jack’s frazzled thoughts, a tall, imposing man jumps out from the bushes in front of Ray. But something is off, and abruptly Jack realises that the man, or whatever he might be, is sporting a pair of furry ears and behind him a tail swishes from one side to the other. He smiles at Ray, and Jack spots the glint of unnaturally sharp teeth and yellow eyes, before quickly hiding behind the nearest tree. He struggles to keep his breath under control and feels himself begin to panic as he realises that that man, animal, monster, has got to be the big bad wolf. The one all the stories are about. The stories that are engraved into every child’s mind and makes them fear the dark of the forest long after they’ve stopped being children. The reason no one ever strays from the path if they value their life, and there he is, standing less than couple of feet from the most precious thing in Jack’s life.

He’s gotta do something, can’t let him hurt Ray, but what is he supposed to do? He wants to jump out, to defend Ray, but he knows he’ll be less than helpful in a fight. Trying to calm himself down enough to think, he peeks around the tree.

“You know you can't scare me anymore, Ryan.” he hears Ray say.

“Yeah, but I can always try.” sounds the response from the monster, Ryan apparently, and Jack looks on in confusion as they send each other matching grins and begin strolling down the path side by side.

Slightly calmed by the fact that Ray doesn’t seem scared, he breathes in deeply. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but he does know that he needs to get Michael as fast as possible, but there’s no way he can leave Ray alone. Unable to see a better option, he begins following the two at a safe distance, not wanting to alarm them to his presence. He can hear them talking, but not what they’re talking about.

Jack's eyebrows practically disappear into his hairline when he sees Ryan grab Ray's hand. Ray skips to follow along with Ryan's long strides and swings their hands between them. Jack is slowly becoming more and more bewildered as he trails the two through the forest.

They’ve been going for no more than a couple of minutes before they stop, and Jack can see Ray pointing up at something in a large tree. He lets go of Ryan’s hand and swings himself up on one of the lower branches before starting to climb the old tree.

“Ray, it’s not worth it, you’re gonna fall and hurt yourself.” Jack hears the wolf shout towards the rapidly ascending boy.

As Ray gets higher, Jack becomes more and more nervous and begins to sneak closer.

Jack looks up into the tree and sees Ray reaching precariously for a small red ball stuck between two branches. It feels like all air is sucked out of Jack’s lungs when one of Ray’s feet slip on the mossy branch and he with a yell falls through the air landing straight into the arms of Ryan. Jack sighs a breath of relief, even though he doesn’t feel like this situation is much better.

“I told you to be careful!” the wolf says.

“And I knew you'd be there to catch me!” Ray smiles.

“I swear to god Ray, you're gonna be the death of me.”

Ryan sounds exasperated, but Ray just laughs and winks at him. Ryan puts him back down and they continue their stroll through the forest.

At that moment a bird lands on Jack’s shoulder and he only just stops himself from making a loud yelp.

“Goddammit Gavin, you almost gave me a heart attack.” He whispers furiously.

“Sorry Jack.” The bird somehow manages to look bashful. “Why are you spying on Ray?”

“I’m not spying, I’m just looking out for him.”

“Sure does seem a lot like spying Ja-”

“Not now Gavin, I need you to go get Michael, ok? Tell him it’s an emergency.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Just please hurry Gavin.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll go. Don’t worry Jack, we’ll be back in a jiffy, promise.”

Jack watches Gavin disappear between the treetops and quickly goes to catch up with the others.

He worries for a second that he’s lost them, but then he hears a drawn out whine that sounds an awful lot like Ray. His heart turns to ice and he takes off running as he gets closer and begins to hear small groans and gasping sounds. He should have jumped in earlier, should have saved Ray. Obviously, the wolf was just trying to lead him further into the woods before attacking him. How could he be this stupid?

All of a sudden, he bursts into a small clearing. Immediately he notices the wolf pressing Ray against a tree and begins to yell out.

“You get away from my boy, you mmm-oo…” he trails off, fully realising what is actually going on in front of him.

The wolf is admittedly pushing Ray against the tree, but he’s also lifting Ray by his thighs and Ray's hands are tangled in Ryan’s hair and what he thought was attacking actually seems to be the two kissing quite ferociously.

They both turn their heads like deer in a headlight. Ryan’s face contracts into a snarl while Ray's face very quickly becomes a colour of red that rivals the one on Jack's own face.

“I can explain!!” Ray yelps, while frantically trying to pull down his dress that has ridden up considerably, possibly because of the wolf’s hand, which currently seem to be fondling his butt.

The wolf lets him go carefully and then moves to stand between the two, blocking Jack’s view of Ray.

No one says anything for a tense couple of seconds, Jack too flustered and taken aback to react. Then Ray grabs the wolf's shoulder and makes him look at him, they seem to have a brief silent communication and he relaxes slightly as Ray steps in front of him.

“Ma.. This is Ryan.. My boyfriend..” He says with a deep intake of breath.

“But.. I don’t.. Ray, he's a wolf!” Jack says, still highly distraught.

“Please, ma, you have to understand-”

“No Ray, he's a monster! I don't care _what_ he's told you, he's clearly lying!”

Ryan’s eyes turn to slits over Ray's head and Ray looks taken aback, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

“This is exactly why i didn't tell you! I knew you wouldn't even try to understand!”

“For god’s sake Ray, please be reasonable! He's a murderer!”

“You don’t even know him! Ryan just protects the forest! He'd never hurt someone without a reason!”

“Ray! Can’t you see he's lying to you?! He's the big bad wolf for christ sake!”

“That might be, but I love him, Ma! And nothing can change that! Come on Ryan, we're leaving now.” Ray grabs a slightly stunned looking Ryan by the hand and drags him away swiftly.

“Ray come back here right now! Ray! Do as i say, he's dangerous!”

They quickly disappear into the dense forest and when Jack tries to go after them, it turns out that he can’t find them anymore.

He somehow manages to walk round in a circle and ends up back in the clearing. Just as he’s starting to give up, Michael suddenly shows up followed by a squawking Gavin.

“What's going on!? Are you alright Jack?”

Jack is tearing up and grabs Michael to support himself.

“He's got him Michael! He's taken him, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it!” he cries.

“What? Who's gotten who?? Jack, what's happened?”

“The big bad wolf, Michael! He's got my boy!”

Michael awkwardly pats Jack’s back, while trying to absorb what he’s being told.

“It's gonna be alright. I'm gonna go get him back, ok? You just go back to the house, and I'll go get him back.”

“Ok..” Jack sniffles.

“Ok. Do you know which way they went?”

Jack points in the direction he thinks they disappeared.

“Don’t worry Jack, Ray’s gonna be fine, I promise. Gavin, make sure Jack gets home safely.”

Gavin lands on Jack’s shoulder and tweets encouragingly. Michael hurries off in the direction Jack had pointed. The trees in this area of the forest stand close and it’s only because Michael is so used to tracking animals that he picks up on where Ray must have gone.

It doesn’t take long before he finds them sitting in another small sunlit clearing.

Michael furrows his brow as he sneaks up on them, this isn’t what he'd expected. He thought he'd have to fend off the vicious wolfman, whom he'd only caught in glimpses before, and he'd been seriously afraid that Ray had been hurt. But instead they’re sitting up against a tree, Ray nuzzled against Ryan, crying, and Ryan gently stroking his back and dropping kisses onto the top of his head.

Michael stays hidden, confused.

“I knew he wouldn't understand, I knew it.” Ray sobs.

“It's gonna be ok Ray.”

“How Ryan? How is it gonna be ok!? ..I can’t lose you.”

“Ssshh you're not going to, never. We just have to explain it ok? Your mama’s just angry that you didn't tell him, I promise you it’s gonna be ok as soon as he calms down again.”

“It won’t though! I can’t go back there, he thinks you're a monster!”

At that, they sink into silence again, only broken by Ray's quiet sobbing.

Michael is making ready to pounce. He knows he'll have to take the wolf by surprise if he's gonna have a proper chance. He's trying to push his confusion away, it's the big bad wolf after all, the thing he's been hunting for years.

“Did you mean it..?” Ryan breaks the silence.

“Mean what?”

“When you said you loved me?”

Ray sits up slightly, and looks Ryan in the eyes. “Of course I did, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

They both smile dopily at each other.

“I love you too.” Ryan says before bending down and capturing Ray’s lips in a soft kiss.

Michael hesitates, stopping dead in his tracks and accidentally stepping on a stick. The stick cracks loudly and alerts the two to his presence.

Ryan gets up in one smooth movement going into an attack stance and trying to push Ray behind him, but Ray shoves past him and takes a few steps towards Michael.

Ryan looks conflicted and as if he most of all wants to forcefully pull Ray behind him again.

“Michael, please don-” Ray begins.

“Jack send me.. He's worried sick.” Michael interrupts.

“I can't go back Michael. I just can’t. Please don’t make me.”

Michael looks at him for a long moment, chewing on his lip. Seeming to make a decision, he looks past him and locks eyes with Ryan. He steps towards him, Ray tries to stand in his way grabbing on to his shirt.

“Michael please! Don't do this Michael” He's crying full force again.

But Michael keeps going until he's right in front of Ryan, who is looking at him as if he doesn’t quite know what to do.

Michael takes a deep breath before reaching out his hand towards Ryan.

Ryan narrows his eyes, but carefully grabs the hand in a shake before they both let go. The tension seems almost palpable.

“I'm not gonna hurt anyone. I- I hurt you talking.” Michael says and looks at Ray, who blushes slightly. “But I need you to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Alright, but it might be kind of a long story.”

They end up sitting down in the clearing, Ray holding on to Ryan's hand as he explains how they met a little under a year ago. He'd been bringing booze to Geoff out in the forest, when he’d gone off the path to pluck a bouquet of roses and then gotten lost in his search for the prettiest of the flowers. Ryan had originally intended to just scare him back to the path, but Ray hadn’t run from him like he thought he would, instead he’d ended up walking the boy all the way to his destination.

“I was actually terrified, but it’s not like running would have helped me, you’ve got like legs for days man.”

“So you decided flirting was the next logical step?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you where the one who took the flowers.”

After that they’d run into each other from time to time, mostly when Ray got lost, but after a little while Ray would sometimes just spot yellow eyes in the bushes and call Ryan out on watching him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a human that gets lost as much as you do.”

“Yeah, cause I totally didn’t do that on purpose or anything..”

“Wait, what? Really?”

“Duh.”

It wasn't until winter that they became a thing. Ray had tried to take a shortcut across the frozen river and the ice gave way under him. Ryan had been following him and saw him crossing. He managed to pull him out, dragging him back to his cave where he'd made a large fire to warm him and then wrapped him in a lot of blankets.

Ryan looks slightly bashful when Ray laughingly tells of how he had held his hand over his eyes while Ray got out of his wet clothes.

It had turned out that the blankets and fire wasn't enough to keep Ray from freezing and they both blush when they tell that they’d ended up snuggling, Ryan adamantly explaining that it was only to keep Ray from freezing.

“Oh yeah, was it also that, which made you shove your tongue down my throat the next morning? You big liar.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t kiss me first, I basically woke up with your mouth attached to my neck!”

“Seriously! Too much information!” Michael broke into their small argument.

They both look sheepishly at him.

“Sorry Michael, but that's sorta it. I started sneaking out to see Ryan shortly after that. I was afraid Jack would forbid me to go if I told him, so I just didn’t”

Ray looks at Ryan sadly and he squeezes his hand pulling Ray to lean against him.

“I don’t hurt people without a good reason.” Ryan looks intently at Michael.

“I'm just here to protect the forest, and the stories.. They help, they keep people away, they keep people from trampling all over the place, discovering the secrets of the forest, but they're just that, stories.. I mean I'm not saying that they're all completely made up, but I promise, I don’t hurt anyone if I can get around it.

Michael bites his lip, thinking for a moment.

“I believe you.. I've been here a long time, and I know how much people exaggerate, especially in these small towns, and thinking about it I don't think I've ever actually seen someone disappear for good out here.. Besides I could never hurt Ray, and it seems like you mean quite a lot to-”

Michael is interrupted by Ray suddenly hugging him tightly. He pats his back awkwardly and clears his throat “I'll help you talk to Jack.”

They make their way back together and when Jack sees Ray, he hugs him tightly.

He still freezes up when noticing Ryan, but has calmed down enough that with Michael’s help they manage to get him to sit down with them in the small kitchen. They tell the same story that they told Michael (minus the kissing and cuddling part, Ray feels that the story don't strictly need that part to make sense.)

In the end, Jack seems to understand. At least he no longer wants to forbid Ray from seeing Ryan again, though he still seems somewhat hesitant about the whole thing.

Ryan bids his goodnight when it starts getting dark outside and Ray follows him outside.

They stand on the stairs leading up to the house, enveloped by the velvet darkness.

“Well, I guess that didn't go totally horrible.” Ray says, voice quiet in the night.

Ryan smiles and leans down to kiss Ray.

Ray chases his mouth and Ryan chuckles thumb brushing over Ray's cheek.

They both smile.

“I'll meet you by the large oak tomorrow, i think it's finally getting hot enough that we can go swim in the lake” Ray says, and Ryan leaves him a last kiss before disappearing into the shadows.

Ray stands on the stairs for a bit. “It's gonna be ok” he says to himself before turning and going back into the warm light of the small house.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and thank you to SamiJen for creating this awesome au!  
> You can check out my tumblr at [donotfreeedgar](http://donotfreeedgar.tumblr.com/) if you have any questions, ideas or just general silliness!


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